


you're slow and I'm not steady

by withoutwords



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dating, Fluff, Getting Back Together, M/M, Slow Build But Not, sex scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 19:35:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13794774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withoutwords/pseuds/withoutwords
Summary: “We can’t,” Robert finally says, peeling himself away. He doesn’t miss the stricken look on Aaron’s face, like his whole body might crumple with the weight of it.“Robert, I thought - ”“No, no, no.” Robert pushes back in, cradling Aaron’s face in his hands. “I meant I can’t come inside. Not tonight.”After Aaron asks Robert to come home, Robert decides he still needs to earn it first.





	you're slow and I'm not steady

**Author's Note:**

> After making fun of Emmerdale for getting robron moved in and remarried so fast, I decided to write the ‘taking it slow’ fic that was never going to happen. Please understand I say that in jest – I never really thought they’d go slow, ha. 
> 
> So - this isn't very slow, because Robron and I are impatient, but it's different and it was fun so I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks so much :)

Robert’s got Aaron pushed up against the wall by the front door; has his hands clenched in Aaron’s jacket and their mouths locked together like a lifeline. He’d missed this desperation, _desperately_ , he’d missed the way they never had to work too hard to find it. As soon as they had their hands on each other, it all made sense.

Nothing ever compared to this. 

“We can’t,” Robert finally says, peeling himself away. He doesn’t miss the stricken look on Aaron’s face, like his whole body might crumple with the weight of it.

“Robert, I thought - ”

“No, no, no.” Robert pushes back in, cradling Aaron’s face in his hands. “I meant I can’t come inside. Not tonight.”

“Oh come on, seriously?” Aaron says around a laugh. “You’re gonna get me wound up and then just go?”

Robert presses a quick kiss to Aaron’s mouth, and then another, not meaning to look smug but probably failing spectacularly. “You’re not the only one, trust me.”

“Then come up, come on,” Aaron says, grabbing Robert by the belt and pulling him closer. “It’s not like we haven’t done it plenty times before.”

“Yeah,” Robert agrees, his face ducked in close, the look Aaron’s giving him pooling hot and low in his stomach. “But we’re doing things different now, yeah?”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’ll be back tomorrow, and we’ll go for lunch. And then I’ll be back another time and we’ll go for dinner.”

Aaron lifts an eyebrow at him. “What, like, food is the way to a man’s heart or somethin’?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“You’re an idiot.”

“But you love me. And I love you. And I’ll be back tomorrow.”

As he starts to walk off Aaron shouts, “Okay but I’m going upstairs to take care of it myself!” and Robert just laughs, not taking the bait.

*

Robert keeps Aaron’s wedding ring on him wherever he goes. Aaron would take it back right now if he offered – they’re married in every other way, why would one piece of jewellery make any difference? But it feels like it does, somehow. Like a watch, or a coin, or a key to the Mill – he wants to earn it.

He wants to prove to Aaron that he’s right about Robert.

He can be a good guy.

“Well, not a good guy in general,” Aaron says when Robert tells him this, the two of them sitting in Robert’s car after they’d gone to dinner and a movie. They’d missed the movie for the most part – Aaron wasn’t interested in much else than making Robert kiss him until it hurt. 

“You said - ”

“Good to _me_. And the people you love. But a good guy in general? Nah.”

“I can be good!” Robert protests, poking at Aaron’s stomach and making him laugh, catching Robert’s hand and holding it there. 

“Right.”

“I can!”

“Well don’t get upset about it,” Aaron says, still laughing despite the fact Robert’s obviously annoyed. “I didn’t say that was a bad thing.”

“Of course it’s a bad thing.”

“You think knowing you’d stop at nothing to protect me and Liv is bad?” Aaron says, his voice a little lower and his face dipped in, rubbing his thumb along Robert’s palm. “That you fight for all our best interests, and you do what you can to make the best of it – bollocks to other peoples rules. You think I don’t like that?”

Robert swallows hard. “It’s not going to work.”

“What?”

“The seduction techniques,” Robert says, and then pulls his hand away. “I’m still not coming inside.”

“Oh come on, Robert. We’ve had plenty of dates now, you gave me a top blowjob around the back of the Woolie - ”

“Alright, alright,”

“What difference does it make?”

“I told you. I’m not losing all that again. You, Liv, our home. I want to keep doing this for as long as we can, just relearning everything, just … please Aaron.”

“Okay,” Aaron says and it almost sounds like he’s hushing him, soothing him. He comes in for a kiss. “Okay.”

*

They’re supposed to go out to a new bar in Hotten, until Seb is suffering with colic and won’t go to any one but Robert. Aaron comes to pick him up only to find Robert in sweats and a tee, covered in dribble and spit up and any number of other things that are far from attractive.

“Hey, come in,” Robert tells him, a screaming Seb over his shoulder and the kettle half full on the sink. Aaron follows him into the kitchen, watching him juggle with it for a moment before taking over.

“Where’s Vic? Or Diane?”

“Couldn’t handle it, went over to the pub.”

“I guess this means tonight’s off?”

“I’m sorry, he’s just got colic and he won’t settle and Rebecca’s not - ”

“Robert, it’s fine, don’t be sorry,” Aaron tells him, coming in to give Seb a little pat and Robert a gentle kiss. “You go sort him, and I’ll make this, yeah?”

“Thanks.”

While Robert’s getting Seb down, Aaron must make the tea and tidy the kitchen and find some fruit cake in the fridge to cut up to eat. Robert comes back to see it all done, to see Aaron settled at the kitchen table and rifling through the newspaper. He flops into the chair beside him, his face in Aaron’s neck.

“You’re amazing, you.”

“Says the bloke who just got a banshee baby to sleep.”

“Ssh, don’t jinx it,” Robert jokes, and Aaron moves his face enough to kiss him, obviously not deterred by gross baby muck. 

“There’s a _Back To The Future_ marathon on right now,” he tells Robert, as though it’s the best thing he’s heard all day. Robert pulls a face.

“Really?”

“Yeah? What? You don’t like _Back To The Future_?”

“Sure, I guess, but I also like graphic novels and anime.” 

“I don’t see your point.”

Robert just laughs, and pulls him in for another kiss, and wonders just how much of this movie he’ll get through before he passes out on the couch.

Some date night.

*

When Faith has a small family do for her birthday, Aaron invites Robert along. To the Dingles’ credit they don’t really bat an eye when they both walk into the pub hand in hand – Robert could have done without the theatrics but Aaron had insisted (most likely to torture him).

Robert sticks with Aaron and Liv for the most part – Sam coming over to talk to him about some business venture he’s most recently cooked up. It’s hard to imagine he’d thought so badly of them all, once. He thought they were poor, _without_ , but he now knew that wasn’t true. They had more love for each other than Robert had ever gotten from most of his family. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Robert asks Aaron, later, noticing the way he’s been nursing the same beer, noticing how quiet he’d gotten. 

“Huh? Oh, nothin’ just – these are the kind of nights when I miss Adam, y’know?”

“Yeah, I get that. He’d have been half pissed and throwing dodgy darts by now.”

Aaron laughs, rubbing at his eye. “Yeah. Or telling that same stupid story about the swan.”

“Oh, God, even I heard that story about ten times.”

“I’m not surprised.”

Robert reaches out to curl a hand around the back of Aaron’s neck, to give him a little shake of reassurance. “He’ll be back to tell it again one day, you know he will.”

“I guess.”

“Look, I know I was never great at the friends thing, but I could throw some darts with you.”

“Seriously?”

“What? Are you afraid of getting your arse beaten?”

Aaron stands up, presumably to take him up on his offer, but when Robert gets to his feet Aaron pulls him in to kiss him. Ignoring the cat calls, it goes on for a while, until Aaron presses his forehead to Robert's to tell him, “You were. You are.”

“What?”

“My friend. My best friend.”

“Okay.”

“Just with the added bonus of being a brilliant shag,” Aaron adds, and Robert pushes him off, reaching for the bowl of crisps to throw at him.

“ _Cheeky git_.”

*

Robert goes back to the Mill on a Wednesday. Not as a pining ex who conveniently left something behind. Not as a friend who stopped by to lend a hand. As a boyfriend, or a fiancée – or as a husband, if he’s honest. As more than just a guest in his own home: Aaron’s hand on his knee and Liv across the table and Seb asleep in his carrier in the next room.

As part of the family.

“I’d rather forget that story actually,” Robert says, cringing, Aaron stifling a laugh behind his hand.

“Of course you would,” Liv teases, pulling a face, “But I’d rather remember, because it’s hilarious, and because I plan to hold it against ya forever.”

“I never really lived with Vic through all that stuff! I didn’t know!”

“Well, now you do, and so will everyone else if you break my brother’s heart again.”

That sets a bit of a somber tone, but Robert puts three fingers up and tells her, “Scouts' Honour,” trying to keep it playful. He knows Liv’s been having a hard time – Aaron’s kept him up to date with everything going on in their lives – so it’s nice to see her laughing again, even if it’s at his expense.

“Sorry,” Aaron says with a snort, laughing into his drink. “I’m just picturing you in one of those kits.”

“Oh man, and that little sash, like that kid on _Up_!” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Robert leans back with his beer, listening to the two of them cackle together. “Laugh it up. Just don’t come to me when you need a fire lit, or a wound bandaged, yeah? I won’t be there then.”

They slowly make their way from the table to the lounge room, Seb still sleeping soundly while Robert and Liv argue over what they should watch. Aaron ends up stealing the remote and settling on one of his and Robert’s favourite American shows about fixing up old cars.

“Ugh, bore city,” Liv groans, getting off the couch. “I’m going to bed. See yas in the morning, yeah?”

“Uh,” Robert starts to say, flickering a look over at Aaron who just seems amused. “Is that okay? If we stay?”

Liv pulls a face. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Just checking.”

“Alright, goodnight. Weirdos.”

It’s not until Liv’s well and truly in her room, her door closed and everything, that Aaron scooches over on the couch. Robert looks over to see him looking right back, a hopeful smile playing at the corner of his mouth. Robert’s not sure how Aaron gets more beautiful every day – how he finds something new to wonder at. But he does.

“So you’re staying.”

“I’m staying.”

“Just tonight?”

“Well … I’ll have to let Rebecca know, and I’ll have get my stuff together, and - ”

“And, and, and,” Aaron laughs, and he’s coming up to straddle Robert on the couch, hands at his neck to kiss him. “And you’re staying. Forever.”

“Forever.”

*

Robert can almost close his eyes and pretend he never left. He knows this place so well. The smooth slide of the sheets beneath him, the smell of Aaron above him; the sound of their bodies twisting together and Aaron’s throaty groans as he pushes inside Robert, comes back to him. Robert’s babbling, and that’s also familiar, being so strung out on this feeling that he can’t form words except, _yes, yes, fuck, Aaron_.

“I missed you so much,” Aaron says, emotional, pushing Robert’s knee back to find a better angle and moving in to kiss him, slow and wet. Robert gasps out when Aaron finds the right spot, his fingernails cutting into the skin of Aaron’s back and his whole body shaking like tripped wire. Aaron works him over then, harder, faster, and it’s not the kind of slow that Robert was working on but it was never going to be. Not after so long.

“You too,” Robert manages to say, “Love you,” and Aaron kisses him again, and holds his arm down and won’t let him touch himself until he’s right on the brink and about to lose whatever is left of his mind.

It’s over and over and further and further and Robert’s so lost but so very, very found. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” Aaron all but shouts as he comes, the heavy weight of him still inside Robert as Robert gives himself a few last tugs and does the same. It’s hot and messy and Robert opens his mouth for more kisses and it almost feels like another consummation.

A prayer, a proclamation.

“Why did you make me wait for that?” Aaron teases, his eyes shut as he nuzzles at Robert’s cheek, his throat. 

“Shut up,” is the best Robert can come up with. “It wasn’t just that.”

“It was, but.”

“No, it was … it was this bed and this room and this house. And … and cleaning up together, and sleeping next to each other, and having breakfast in the morning. All of it.”

Aaron cuddles in closer, wraps his arms around whatever parts of Robert he can reach. “God Robert, you’re amazing y’know?”

Robert kisses the top of his head. “I’m just a good guy,” he says, and Aaron laughs deep from his belly, Robert can feel it against his skin.

“Okay, Obi Wan. I believe you.”

*

There’s a few boxes in the back room, still unpacked, and a ton of mail sitting at Vic’s waiting to be redirected. There’s milk in the fridge that Aaron and Liv won’t touch, and twice as much washing in the hamper. There’s a lot more music for them to listen to, again – _The Clash_ on vinyl and _Taylor Swift_ s earlier stuff on CD (Robert’s not ashamed in this house, he likes to _Shake It Off_ from time to time).

There’s a monitor on the kitchen table that crackles with Seb’s little cries sometimes – soon followed by someone’s gentle hushing and humming as he settles back down. The place is more lived in than it’s ever been, messier but warm. More dents on the couch and more shows recorded on the player and more beer bottles in the box to go out for recycle. 

“I should have told you, though,” Aaron says to Robert after just a few weeks of him moving in. “There’s one condition to all this.” 

“All this?” Robert repeats, a little bitingly, trying to hold back his smile. “You mean our marriage?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Oh, okay. And what’s that? Because I’m pretty sure I set up the date, and I proposed again, and there was a pretty brilliant party for two afterwards.” 

Aaron laughs. _At_ him. “Well, you wanted to date. Why can’t we now?” 

“Like right now?” 

“No, now that we’re married. Plank.” 

“Well, we can,” Robert says, a little confused by the idea. “You know, when Liv’s not grounded and someone’s got Seb and we’re both not half asleep on the couch in our grotty pyjamas.” 

“Speak for yourself, I love these things,” Aaron protests jokingly, pulling on his tee. Robert decides not to tell him that he loves them too. “I just meant – we just have to remember to take time out. Just the two of us. We’re part of something big now but we’re still, us, y’know. You and me.” 

Robert just stares at him for a moment – how he’s so open and honest and calm. He’d thought he’d seen it back when Aaron was with Alex, but he’d been stupid. He’d been wrong. Aaron really was happy here, with him. Robert really was his answer, just like Aaron was his. 

“Of course. There’s no other place I want to be then with you.” 

Aaron leans over for a chaste kiss, then curls his fingers in Robert's collar. “So expensive dinners for two then?” 

“A curry and a beer more like,” Robert says, and kisses him right back. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr.](http://thefancyspin.tumblr.com)


End file.
